I've seen some people on forums throw around 30% or more outrageous numbers like 50-60%.  The 16% number is from a company that deals in selling warranties and it also mentions that the number may only apply to older 360s (pre-Falcon).


http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166259

Report Claims Xbox 360 Failure Rates at 16%

"There's been a lot of press about Microsoft's red ring problem. Estimates of the problem have been all over the map, and when he was working for Microsoft, Peter Moore referred to them as a moving target. Company estimates pinned it at a fairly normal 3%, while some retailers have put the percentage as high as 1/3 of all systems.

A new report claims the truth is somewhere in the middle. SquareTrade deals in selling warranties for electronics, and has amassed their over 1000 warranty claims to come up with some interesting data. The findings were a 16.4% failure rate of Xbox 360 systems, versus a roughly 3% rate for the Sony PlayStation 3 or the Nintendo Wii with sample sizes in the high hundreds. The well-known "Red Ring of Death" error accounted for about 60% of those hardware failures, and thus most system-breaking problems are covered by Microsoft's extended warranty plan.

SquareTrade CEO Steve Abernethy speculated that the future may see an even higher percentage. "It is reasonable to believe these failure rates will increase over time, since the Xbox 360 failure issues tend to increase with prolonged use where overheating appears the main culprit," he said. Abernethy went on to note that while the company didn't track the different variations of the 360, he "would estimate most if not all were the original motherboard."

In taking statistics, the two most important factors are sample size and randomness. By using a pool of over 1000 redeemed warranties, the report's sample size is sufficient. On the other hand, since the sampling was taken from people who have to seek SquareTrade's warranty service out, the possibility exists that the randomness factor could be skewed, leaning towards heavy system users who are more likely to overheat their 360s. This doesn't invalidate the report by any means, but it is worth keeping mind.

1UP has contacted Microsoft for comment, but as of press time we haven't received a response."

That's great news! Much improved from when it was over 30%. The falcons must be doing something then.

Hopefully :) I hope in about a year or so that the RROD will be just a bad memory.

1up ...

At least, we can assume the newer system (faclon and +) are a lot more stable.

Good news and I too hope that soon enough the whole RROD debacle will be just a memory but you just know the eventual 1up/"Microsoft Defense Force" accusations are gonna come flying in.

In other words, the failure rate for problems not covered under the extended RROD warranty is still 6.5% (40% of 16.4%), or roughly double the failure rate for the PS3 and Wii.

we may see an even higher percentage due to prolonged use

The test group was only 1000 360's. 

It's not fixed, this article is not positive for the 360, and Microsoft lied when they claimed 3 percent.

Basically, RRoD is still bad, 16 percent failure rate over less than a year is terrible, what will that rate be in 5 years, 100 percent?

I know a lot of people use this to hate on the 360 just because they are PS3 fanboys, but to consumers, this is still a serious turnoff for purchasing the console, and this article only reaffirms its existance to the mainstream media. 

I'm on my second 360 right now. If it breaks, I'm going to be so pissed. 16% is still an extreemly high failure rate. 10% is the highest a consoles failure rate should ever be, and even that's high. When I buy a console, I expect it to work. I should not have to buy console that has less than a 90% chance of working. That's bullshit.

That 16% is still shocking!

I mean to release a product with such bad hardware problems in the 1st place is just such a bad business decision. I wouldn't be surprised if come MS next xbox people are wary about buying it and go with Sony and Ninty instead.

I would have a 360, but i refuse to buy a console that has a high chance of failing and very poor customer service!

There could be a malaise of other issues with the data, however, this website gives no actual computation data, or ratios of Falcon models to pre-Falcon models, 2nd heatsink models, or any such information.

Because if this, the failure rate could be much lower. Other problems were involved around the RROD issue, that could contribute much higher than 60% of the failures being RROD (or should we say overheating/GPU issues).